By Resolution No. 9/2025, the Secretary of Industry and Commerce of the Ministry of Economy, on the recommendation of the National Commission for the Defence of Competition (CNDC), called for a review of two laws that grant exclusivity to the Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires (BAPRO) for the payment of salaries for municipal employees in the Province of Buenos Aires, with the aim of restoring competition.

Act No. 14.881 of the Province of Buenos Aires, enacted on 29th December 2016, establishes that all public, autarchic and decentralised bodies of the province, including private subsidised educational establishments, municipalities and their decentralised bodies, must implement the payment of salaries to staff through the Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, by opening salary accounts for each of the agents in the mentioned public banking entity.

BAPRO’s organic charter, approved by Decree-Law PBA 9434/79, establishes that municipalities must implement the payment of staff salaries through the Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, by means of the opening of common savings accounts for each of the agents.

The CNDC considered that the regulations generate a restriction of competition as they give an undue advantage to the BAPRO over other public and private financial institutions. The lack of competition in this segment of the banking services market could prevent the offer of services with better conditions (such as lower prices and more benefits) for both the contracting entities and the employees who receive their salaries. It therefore recommended amending BAPRO's charter and redrafting provincial law 14.881 so as to remove the restriction on competition in the payment of salaries of employees of municipalities and other public and subsidised private establishments.